Winter Tyres

[Funkstar]

Haven't seen a thread on this, so here we go

I'm looking for winter tyres for my Golf GTI MK5. I believe the tyre ize is 225/45 17", whih makes things a little difficult.

Any recomendations for places to get them? I've found mytyres.co.uk and they have them starting at £110, which I guess isn't too bad, I haven't seen cheaper anywher else. Granted these are no name tyres, is it worth spending a bit more on a known brand?

What about the number of tyres to get? Is it just for the driven wheels, or do they all need to be winter?

All I really want out of them over normal tyres is the ability to not get stuck in snow when the road isn't perfectly flat. My current tyres are pathetic.

I'll alo need to get a set for my better halfs Zafira, no idea what the size is for them though.

[GoNz0]

consider some cheap steel rims from the scrap yard/ebay and put some tyres on that are about 185/ wide, wider in snow is not better, look at a land rovers skinny efforts and watch it climb a mud bank!

the price of the tyres and rims will still cost the same/less than trying to get 225's BUT you get to chop and change smow/summer yourself instead of paying £50 a throw to rerim the old tyres

[Konan555]

It's not all about snow. Winter tyres supposedly grip better in tempreatures below 7. Whilst they're better at snow, in most people's cases they'll only be on the white stuff for a few miles until they hit a main road or the odd day of heavy snowfall. The rest of the time, I'd prefer to keep the original spec for the vehicle. Ultimately, winter tyres are appropriate for at least 3 months of the year in the UK, if not more!

225/45/17... Exactly the size I've been chasing! There's a big shortage of decent winter rubber going on at the moment.

I *think* I've located some. I'm calling them this morning to check.

[Funkstar]

Where I am, it's going to be < 7C until about March I think, so winter tyres will definitely be an advatage. I would rather just get ones to fit my current wheels to be honest.

What about the number, do I just need the fronts changed? Or is there an advantage to getting them all done?

[Konan555]

Manufactures appear to stipulate you need all four to be winter. Of course, this means they sell 4 tyres

However, I'd personally go with that. Else you might find you're doing Capri impressions at roundabouts.

[Funkstar]

That's a very good point Konan. I do also suspect I need new tyres anyway, so getting 4 at the same time makes a lot of sense. I'll wait until I get home and phone about to see who has any.

Thanks for the pointers

[Moby-Dick]

Manufactures appear to stipulate you need all four to be winter. Of course, this means they sell 4 tyres

However, I'd personally go with that. Else you might find you're doing Capri impressions at roundabouts.

The disadvantage of 4WD - having to purchase tyres in 4's

I'll make do with the set I have at the moment , though I have my eyes on some 18's at some point I'm very tempted to hang onto the 17's to use for winter tyres.

[Konan555]

The disadvantage of 4WD - having to purchase tyres in 4's

Bah... proper 4x4 will even handle different profiles front and rear

[Guy]

Funk you might be a bit late to the party......

Nearly all of last week/the week before, I was trying to track down some winter tyres in 225/45/17 with a Speed rating of W. (The wheels currently on the car are 225/40/18 + 255/35/18, so I've picked up a spare pair of 17's, unfortunatly thats the lowest I can go, due to the size of the brakes)

EVERYWHERE has sold out, the only option were to try and track some down from Europe. My Tyres claimed to have stock, but a week after ordering I got a 'sorry were out of stock' email!
From speaking to most places it seems that manufacturers only do 1 production run of winter tyres per year, so once there sold out, thats it until next year.

You might be lucky and some places might have some more stock hidden away, but I wouldnt count on it!

[Guy]

Its actually just as cheap/sometimes cheaper to order tyres from here:

http://www.reifen.com/en?

They are German, but the prices are V good, and the shipping to the Uk is only roughly 5 EUR per tyre!

But even they are out of 225/45/17's for anything Winter.

My advice find out what the smallest sized wheel you can fit on the car, and pick up a cheap set of alloys of ebay or something, then get them fitted with winter rubber.

[Konan555]

Which particular tyre did you try from mytyres? The place that may have stock arn't open today..... because of snow. Snow has prevented me possibly bagging some tyres for snow.

Sadly, in my case, stepping down to 16" rims is a gamble as most spoke designs foul the caliper. Even some 17s don't go on!

[Moby-Dick]

Bah... agricultural 4x4 will even handle different profiles front and rear

well yeah it will do it on the Stagea and it upsets the Altessa kit

[Guy]

Which particular tyre did you try from mytyres? The place that may have stock arn't open today..... because of snow. Snow has prevented me possibly bagging some tyres for snow.

Sadly, in my case, stepping down to 16" rims is a gamble as most spoke designs foul the caliper. Even some 17s don't go on!

This was about 10 days ago, I actually rang them up directly to try and get an accurate picture of stock.

I was after some Nokian WR G2's, or failing that some Vredestein Wintrac's.

Nokians were none in stock, and no ETA as to when/if more would come in. The Wintracs allegidly were in stock, albeit in small numbers. So I ordered 4 right then over the phone. 4 days later got the generic sorry we dont have your product in stock email

So I compromised, I ordered a set of All Season tyres

[Konan555]

Well, I'm going to have a punt at some KW27s. That's as low as I go I'm sure there are wanli and linglong lurking below that.

[mycarsavw]

If it's just to negotiate snowy/icy roads then consider snow chains (or snow socks) for the driven wheels.

Granted they're a PITA to put on and off, but they're a darn site cheaper than wheels/tyres.

I've just got out after being snowed in since Wednesday. Having spent most of Thursday walking round our village, I noticed the only things moving freely were tractors and vehicles with snow chains - everything else, 4WD/AWD/etc struggled to get traction.

[Funkstar]

Thanks Guy. I figured I would find it tough to get, but I didn't figure on them only producing one batch a year

I'll go with the chailns/socks in the mean time. However, it's looking more and more likely that I'll be changing the GTI to something rather large and 4wd in the near future.